The Queen's Cup eBook

“Me neber fired off gun in my life, sar.
Me more afraid of gun than of dose rascals. Dominique
fight with um sword; dat plenty good for him.”

The path mounted the hill until they were, as Frank
thought, some three hundred feet above the water.
Here the ground was cultivated, and after walking
for ten minutes they saw two or three lights in front.

“You stop here, sar,” Dominique said,
handing the lantern to Frank. “Me go on
and see how best get round de village. Must not
be seen here. If native boat come in at night
suah to go up to end ob water, and land at village
dere.”

The negro soon returned, and said that the cultivated
land extended on both sides of the village, and there
was no difficulty in crossing it. The village
was passed quietly, and when it was once well behind
them they came down upon the path again, which was
much larger and better marked than it had been before.
After following it for half a mile, they came upon
a road, which led obliquely up from the water, and
ran somewhat inland.

“This is no doubt the road from the village
at the head of the arm of the bay. They have
probably come along here, though they may have turned
more directly into the hills. That is the first
point to find out, Dominique.”

“Yes, sar, next village we see me go in wid
two ob de boatmen and ask a few questions.”

Following the path along for another few hundred yards,
they saw a road ahead of them. Here they halted,
and two of the blacks handed over their muskets and
cutlasses to the care of the sailors. Dominique
also left his cutlass behind him, and as he went on
gave instructions to his two companions.

“Now look here,” he said in negro French,
“don’t you say much. I will do the
talking, but just say a word or two if they ask questions.
Mind we three belong to the brigantine. I am the
pilot. The captain has given me a message to
send to his friends who have gone up into the hills.
He asked me to take it, but I am not sure about the
way. I am ready to pay well for a guide.
I expect that they will say that the ladies came along,
but that they do not know how they went afterwards.
Then we ask him to come as guide, and promise to pay
him very well.”

By this time they were close to the hut, which, as
Dominique assured himself before knocking at the door,
stood alone. There was an old man and woman inside,
and a boy of about seventeen. Dominique took
off his hat as he entered, and said in French:

“Excuse me for disturbing you so late.
I am the pilot of a vessel now in the bay, and have
been sent by the captain to carry an important message
to a gentleman who landed with another and two ladies
and some armed men. He did not give me sufficient
directions to find him, and I thought that if they
passed along here you might be able to put me in the
way.”

“They came along here between eleven and twelve,
I think. We saw them,” the old man said,
“and we heard afterwards that the ladies were
being taken away because the ship was, they thought,
going to be attacked by a pirate that had followed
them. The people from the villages went to help
fight, for the gentleman had bought many things and
had paid well for them, and each man was promised a
dollar if there was no fighting, and four dollars if
they helped beat off the pirate.”